Tobias Churton - Aleister Crowley: The Biography: Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master and Spy

Tobias Churton is a world authority on Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Hermeticism and Gnosticism. Holding a Masters degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, Tobias is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter University and Faculty Lecturer in Western Esotericism. An accomplished film-maker and composer with an award-winning drama documentary series Gnostics, for Channel 4, Tobias has also written a standard biography of Elias Ashmole (161792).
Please consult www.tobiaschurton.com for more information.

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Gnostic Philosophy, from Ancient Persia to Modern Times
The Magus of Freemasonry The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmole
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Free Masons

Miraval A Quest

The Fear of Vision collected poetry

This edition first published in the UK and USA 2011 by
Watkins Publishing, Sixth Floor, Castle House,
7576 Wells Street, London W1T 3QH

Design and typography copyright Watkins Publishing 2011

Text Copyright Tobias Churton 2011
Copyright Ordo Templi Orientis for all material by Aleister Crowley

Tobias Churton has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

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ISBN: 978-1-78028-134-6

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I dedicate this book to the memory of my father and mother, Victor and Patricia Churton, and to spiritual philosophers everywhere.

It is hard to express adequately my gratitude to the World Head of the Ordo Templi Orientis, William Breeze (Hymenaeus Beta) who has not only offered innumerable corrections and insights to the manuscript, but has also provided a wealth of previously unpublished material, from obscure diaries to rare letters from the OTO archive. He has, furthermore, generously made available his own researches, undertaken for his definitive edition of Crowleys Confessions. For these services, he has asked for nothing more than good will, freely leaving issues of interpretation to my best efforts. William Breeze has been this biographys rod and comforter.

While the OTO archive has been of signal assistance, the greater part of Crowleys manuscripts are, thanks to the prescience of the late Gerald Yorke, held in trust as the Yorke Collection, Warburg Institute. For providing permission and facilities to study this restricted collection, I am indebted not only to William Breeze but also to the kind forbearance of Professor Jill Kraye, librarian and professor in the history of renaissance philosophy, the Warburg Institute, and her staff. I treasure fond memories of the warm helpfulness of assistant librarian Andrea Meyer-Ludowisy and of graduate library trainee, Tabitha Tuckett, who made many long sessions at the Warburg a timeless joy. Thanks also to Ian Jones, the Warburgs photographer and coordinator of visual resources for providing access to rare photographs. Professor Krayes predecessor, Professor W F Ryan deserves sincere thanks for permitting my first forays into the Yorke Collection, back in 1991 and 1992.

Gerald Yorkes son John kindly gave permission for me to quote from his fathers often witty contributions to the Crowley corpus, while offering my wife and me joyous hospitality at Forthampton Court. John Yorke also pointed me in the direction of evocative memorabilia from Crowleys life and from Crowleys working relationship with Lady Harris.

Permission to publish a vital letter from the Hon. Everard Feilding to Gerald Yorke, plainly indicating Crowleys real loyalties during WW1, was kindly granted by Suzy, the Countess of Denbigh. I am also grateful to Captain Adrian Cassar RN for guidance in the matter of Crowleys correspondence with the Naval Intelligence Department 193942.

One of the many startling revelations that came in the course of writing this book, was the opportunity to converse and correspond with Crowleys grandson, Eric Muhler, a brilliant jazz musician with a powerful grip on philosophy and its limitations. I am very grateful to Eric for helping me with first-hand family memories both painful and amusing concerning his mother Astarte Lulu Crowley and his grandmother Ninette (ne) Fraux, whom he met, and whose account of her sometime lover, Crowley, he remembered. The actual experience and effects particularly on the children of living through a premature New Age in the 1920s were brought vividly and painfully to life when Eric generously furnished me with the reflections of himself and his mother, the formidable Lulu. Thought-provoking, they appear in .

Much harm to Crowleys family and career derived from his being targeted by Mussolinis fascist government. I want to thank Dr Marco Pasi for acquainting me with his critical researches into Italian government records from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as evidence for the anti-Crowley activity of other fascists and fascist sympathizers in France and Great Britain during the period.

Martin P Starr offered valued insight into Crowleys intriguing associations with men as diverse as Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs and English-born Californian Thelemite, WT Smith, subject of Starrs fascinating biography, The Unknown God.

I should also like to express my gratitude to all of the following persons and institutions that have made this journey into a mans life so fascinating and rewarding: the staff of the Hampshire County Archive, Winchester, Timothy dArch Smith, Christopher McIntosh who put a mountain aside to write the Foreword, Mark Booth (who first commissioned the work), Frank van Lamoen, and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and all my colleagues at Exeter Universitys Centre for the Study of Western Esotericism.

When this book hit a crisis, publisher Michael Mann came to the rescue with encouragement, belief and rare spiritual insight, while my agent, Fiona Spencer Thomas, facilitated a research programme that took in Crowley territory from Alton to Eastbourne.

Finally, I wish to express my never-ending love and gratitude for my mother, Patricia Churton. Many times she patiently listened to me read portions of manuscript over the phone; she read and annotated Crowleys Confessions for me, and was always a beacon of refined, practical intelligence. Our last conversation was about the book, and I am so sorry she did not live to see it finished. She enjoyed Aleister Crowleys personality and intelligence, understood what it meant to me, and believed the world would benefit from, and be intrigued to know, the truth about him. Regardless of ones views on magick, she believed there was much to love, knowing, as she did, that Love is the Law.

1: Portrait of Abraham Crowley (17951864), Crowleys great-uncle, cofounder of the Crowley Brewery business, Alton, Hampshire (courtesy of Hampshire County Archive)